The latest Metropolitan Police Force advertising campaign encouraging us all to spy on each other is further evidence that the UK is losing its nerve entirely and will, before long, welcome Stasi-like secret police, constant observation, and further restrictions in our movements.

In the old days, there was a very real terrorist threat within the UK, what with the IRA and all that. During that time business as usual was preached – once you respond to the terrorists, you have already lost. Now, there were plenty of attacks, lots of people died but, ultimately, it is now history. Who was funding the terrorists here? Well, there were rumours of collections being held in certain Boston bars to support the brave freedom fighters across the Atlantic but I’m not saying anything…

Is society to blame for its own incarceration? Is accountability the true evil here? When everyone has to be seen to be doing something, the only responses are kneejerk – there is no plan, there is just a panicked herd mentality.

“To ensure that the people would become and remain submissive, East German communist leaders saturated their realm with more spies than had any other totalitarian government in recent history. The Soviet Union’s KGB employed about 480,000 full-time agents to oversee a nation of 280 million, which means there was one agent per 5,830 citizens. Using Wiesenthal’s figures for the Nazi Gestapo, there was one officer for 2,000 people. The ratio for the Stasi was one secret policeman per 166 East Germans. When the regular informers are added, these ratios become much higher: In the Stasi’s case, there would have been at least one spy watching every 66 citizens! When one adds in the estimated numbers of part-time snoops, the result is nothing short of monstrous: one informer per 6.5 citizens. It would not have been unreasonable to assume that at least one Stasi informer was present in any party of ten or twelve dinner guests.”